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3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

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P. GMBHLIN.

. PIANO PORTE.

No. 311,243. Patented Jan. 27, 1885.

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3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

P. GMBHLIN.

PIANO PORTE.

Patented Jan. 27, 1885.

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' 3 Sheets-Sheet 3. P. GMBHLIN.

PIANO FORTE.

(No Model.)

Patented Jan. 27, 1885.

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PAUL GMEHLIN, OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

PIANO-FO RTE.

. SPECIFICATION forming part; of Letters Patent No. 311,243, datedJanuary 27, 1885.

Application filed October '2, 1884. (No model l To all whom t mayconcern:

Be it known that I, PAUL GMEi-ILIN, a resident of New York city, in thecounty and State of 'New York, have invented an Improvement inPiano-Fortes, ot' which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, inwhich* Figure 1 is a face view of the strings and bridges of apiano-forte having my invention. Fig. 2 is a face view of the action ofsaid instrument, looking in the direction of the arrow that isrepresented in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of the instrument. Fig.4L is a detail View of the damper; Fig. 5, a detail cross-section of thebar in which the eXtra damper-rods are swiveled. Fig. 6 is a top view ofa portion of said bar.

The object of this invention is to increase thc singing quality77 of apiano-forte by means of certain additional strings which are interposedbetween the system of regular strings, but so located that they cannotbe struck by thehammers, and divided each into two equal parts, and alsoby means ot certain connections between the dampers, whereby the damperwhich is one octave below the key which is struck will be lifted oft itsstrings. Heretofore pianos have been constructed with strings interposedbetween the regular strings, so as to vibrate by sympathy with thestrings that are struck by the hammers. Such interposed strings were ofthe same pitch as the strings near which they were placed, and wereintended to vibrate with the saine note as the strings that wereactually struck by the hammers; or these strings were arranged toproduce overtones or harmonics of the fundamental-tone strings by havingthe vibrating lengths of such strings made aliquot parts of the lengthof the main strings.

My invention, so far as the first object is concerned, differs from theinstruments heretofore used in that the interposed, string is dividedinto two equal lengths, each half of which sounds by sympathy one octavehigher than the main strings near which it is placed.

As to the second object of my invention, this is based upon "the factwhich I have asmiddle G-is struck, and at the same time the key C, whichis one octave below, is depressed, so asto set free its damper but notgive a sound, the effect will be that the strings pertaining to thelower octave will sound, so long as their key remains depressed, in thesame pitch as the string which was actually struck; hence my invention,so far as the second object is concerned, consists in uniting eachdamper with the damper which is one octave below it, so as to lift itoff the strings when itself lifted by the depression of the key.

In the drawings, with special reference to Fig. l, which shows thestrings for an upright piano-forte, although the invention is applicableto all piano-fortes, the letter a represents the ordinary wrest-plankstring-bridge, over which the ordinary strings, A, run to thetuning-pins b. d is the sounding-board bridge, over which the strings Arun, as is usual, to the hitch-pins c, which are tixed in the iron plateB. C is an additional sounding-board bridge, which is part of myinvention, and which runs midway between the wrest-plank string-bridge aand the sounding-board bridge d. ln this additional sounding-Boardbridge C are secured agraifes f. D .D are the additional strings ot' myinvention. Each of these strings is secured to a tuning-pin, b, passedover the wrest-plank bridge a through an agraffe, f, and thence over thesounding-board bridge d to a hitch-pin, e. These additional strings D Dare indicated by dotted lines in Figs. l and 3, Fig. 3 showing also thearrangement of the bridge a in the wrest-plank and of the bridge C onthe sounding-board Et Fig. 3 also shows that each string D is placedback of the plane in which the regular strings A A are located, so thatthe strings D cannot be struck by the hammers F ot the piano. It will beseen that the agrat'fes f divide the additional strings D D into halvesof equal lengththat is, the two halves of each string are equal inlength. In timing, these additional strings are tuned one oct-ave higherthan the regular strings next to them, and, being divided into equalhalves, each of these additional strings will sound as two strings anoctave higher than the strings near them which are struck. By thisarrangement each note or chord of three regular strings will, whenstruck by the hammer, cause the two halves of the additional string D tovibrate by sympathy an ICO octave higher than the note which is struckby the hammer, thus producing a rich and full sound far superior to thatproduced if an additional string having the same pitch is placed so asto sound by sympathy near the regular strings. An additional advantagewhich is obtained from the use of these strings D D is that, engaging bymeans of the agraffes f with the center of the sounding-board, theyserve to brace the sounding-board, giving it additional upward strain.

I will now describe the second part of my improvement, which seeks tomake the strings in an octave below sound whenever a key is struck.

Fig. 3 shows atG an ordinary damper,which is lifted off a stringwhenever the key II is depressed, and before the hammer F strikes thestrings. g is the damper-lever; z,the damperwire, upon which thedamper-head G is secured. All these are as commonly employed in actionsof upright pianos, and are not of my invention. In Fig. 2 I show aninner face view of two oetaves of dampers-that is to say, looking at thestriking-laces of the dampers. From this figure it will very clearlyappeal' how I carry my object into ef- `feet-namely, I affix to theordinary damperwire, nof each damper a small block, which has an eye atits outer or back part. Through this eye I insert one end of a long wireor lever, I, the other end of which is swiveled in a rail, J, which isstationarily supported by a bracket or brackets, Z, on the immovableportions of the instrun'ient. Each damperlever g carries on its back asmall cushion or projection, m. A careful examination of Fig. 2 willshow that the cushion m, which is in contact with a lever, I, belongs tothat damper which is an octave below the damper to which such lever isattached. Confusion will be avoided if it be remembered that Fig. 2,being a back view, shows the lower keys at the right hand side. Thus,taking the ex treme left damper of Fig. 2, which is marked as belongingto the key "G, itsleverIisin contact with the cushion m of the damperbelonging to the key 07h-that is, one octave below that first named.Therefore, if the damper first named-that is, the one on the extremeleft in Fig. 2-be moved away from the string, which would be away fromthe observer of Fig. 2, it will carry the lever I with if, and thislever I by this motion will, pressing the cushion m of the damper, whichis an octave lower, cause said damper to leave contact with its strings,thus setting them free to sound in harmony with the strings that arestruck an octave above them, and, as already stated, this sound will bein the pitch of the octave above and not inthe pitch which would beproduced were the strings of the lower octave struck by their hammer.

The rail J, which receives the wire levers I I, has by preference bushedholes, in which the said levers are swiveled, and is secured across thewhole length of the damper-levers,

so as not to interfere with the raising of all the dampers by pedalaction.

Although I have described the levers I as the instrumentalities by whicheach damper connects with the damper that is one octave below it, Idesire to state that I do not wish to limit myself to that particularstyle or kind of connection, as my invention can be carried into effectby other means which would permit the lifting of the dampers in themanner described.

As regards the additional strings D, heretofore referred to, I wish tostate, also, that it is not essential that they should run parallel withthe main strings A, or that there should be one such additional stringfor every set of two or three main strings A, as their direction ornumber may be varied ad lilriium.

I claim I. In a piano-forte, the combination of the regular strings A Aand their sustaining bridges a (Z with the sounding-board E andintermediate agraifes, f, which are carried by said sounding board, andthe additional strings D D, which additional strings are by the agraffesf divided each into two equal vibratory halves, each of which halves hashalf the length of the corresponding main string, to vibrate in sympathytherewith when the main string is struck, substantially as specified.

2. The combination of the sounding-board E with the middle bridge, G,having agratfes j", extra strings D, wrest-plank string-bridge a,sounding-board bridge d, and main strings A, all arranged to produce ot'each extra string two vibratory portions of equal length, substantiallyas specified.

3. In a piano-forte, the dampers G G,which pertain to consecutiveoctavesunited in pairs, in the manner substantially as described, so that thedamper pertaining to the upper oetave will lift the damper pertaining tothe lower octave, while the damper pertaining to the lower 4octave willnot lift the damper pel'- taining to the upper octave, substantially asdescribed.

4. The combination of the dampers G G with the blocks it', levers I I,rail J, and cushions m, as described.

5. The damper G, having blocki and cushion m, substantially as and forthe purpose specified.

b. In a pianoforte, the combination of the main strings A A with theadditional strings D D, sounding-board E, agraffesf, which are sustainedby said sounding-board midway between the bridges a d, dampers G G, andconnecting devices I, which unite the dampers that pertain toconsecutive oel'aves, substantially as described.

PAUL GMEHLIN.

Vit-nesses:

CHARLES G. M. Trioiriis, JOHN C. TUNBRIDGE.

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